'My servants will bring you water to bathe,' she whispered. 'You must
look beautiful for the feast. Perhaps we will decide which one it will
be tonight.' As night fell, so 'the entire following of Ras
Golarri gathered in the main wadi, those ranking highest or with most
push managing to find seating in the large central cave while the
others filled the valley with row upon row of seated and robed
figures.
The whole scene was lit by leaping bonfires.
The fires reflected against the night sky with a faint orange glow
which Major Luigi Castelani noticed at a distance of twenty kilometres
from the Wells.
He halted the column and climbed up on the roof of the leading truck to
study this phenomenon, uncertain at first if the light of the fires was
some freak afterglow of the sunset, but soon realizing that this was
not the case.
He jumped down and snapped at the driver, 'Wait for me,' before
striding rapidly back along the long column of tall canvas-covered
trucks to where the command car stood at the centre.
'My Colonel.' Castelani saluted the sulking figure of the Count who
slumped on the rear seat of the Rolls with one hand thrust into the
front of his unbuttoned tunic, much like the defeated Napoleon
returning from Moscow. Aldo Belli had not yet recovered from the shock
to his pride and self-esteem inflicted by the General. He had
temporarily withdrawn from the vulgar world, and he did not even look
up as Castelani made his report.
'Do what you think correct in the circumstances,' he muttered without
interest. 'Only make certain we have control of the Wells before
dawn,' and the Count turned his head away, wondering if
Mussolini had yet received his cable.
What Castelani thought correct in the circumstances was to darken the
column immediately and put his entire battalion in a state of instant
readiness. No lights were to be shown in any circumstances,
and a rigorous silence was imposed. The column now advanced at little
more than a walking speed, with each driver personally warned that
engine noise was not to exceed idling volume. All the men had been
alerted and rode now in silence with loaded weapons and tense nerves.
When at last the Eritrean guides pointed out to Castelani the shallow
forested valley below them, there was sufficient light from the sliver
of silver moon overhead for Castelani to survey the ground with the eye
of an old professional.
Within ten minutes, he had planned his dispositions, decided where to
hold his motor pool and main bivouac, where to site his machine guns,
place his mortars and lay his rifle trenches. The Colonel grunted his
agreement without even looking up, and quietly the Major gave the
orders which would put into effect his plans and keep the battalion
working all night.
'And the first man who drops a shovel or sneezes I will strangle with
his own guts,' he warned, as he glanced apprehensively at the faint
glow that emanated from amongst the low dark hills beyond the
Wells.
